Single for the Summer: The perfect feel-good romantic comedy set on a Greek island

by Mandy Baggot

  ‘You could go with her,’ Sonya suggested.

  Tess shook her head. ‘No, I couldn’t. I’ve just had this holiday and I need to get back to work. I had an email earlier, the Black Velvet branding seems to have gone down really well so I need to push that through and …’

  ‘And there’s Andras,’ Sonya added.

  All the time she had been pretend-thinking about work and saying all the right, sensible things, all she had been really thinking about was Andras. Corfu. How many weeks she needed to be back at work before she could have another holiday. Perhaps she couldn’t tell him she loved him yet but she was aching to visit again before she had even left.

  ‘Tess,’ Sonya said, waving a hand in front of her face.

  ‘Sorry … I was miles away.’

  ‘Were you?’ Sonya asked, patting her hand, her eyes going to the ceiling, fairy lights and wedding bunting hanging from the beams. ‘Or were you right here?’

  ‘Mama!’ Spiros shouted across the table, his words slurring a little after a day of celebration. ‘Mama! There is something that I have to know.’ He started to stand up, pointing a finger before Andras dragged him back down to his seat.

  ‘This is my husband,’ Kira announced, hair now loose from its confines, looking as wild as ever. ‘My husband who is going to be too drunk to be of any use to me tonight!’

  ‘That is not true!’ Spiros insisted, rising from his chair again.

  ‘Spiros!’ Isadora said, banging her stick. ‘It is time for you to start listening hard to your wife.’

  ‘Yes, I will,’ Spiros answered, raising a hand to his eyebrow in a mock salute. ‘But first, Mama, there is something I want to know.’

  Andras poured his brother a glass of water. ‘Drink this.’ He held it out.

  ‘Wait!’ Spiros said, waving the glass away. ‘Mama, please, you must tell us … what happened to Uncle Dimitri?’

  All eyes, including Andras’s, turned to his mother, like she held all the answers to the Grexit crisis.

  Isadora took a long, slow breath in and then released it out fast with the words. ‘He died.’

  Everyone at the table inhaled at once and some of his relations made the sign of the cross over their torso.

  ‘But how?’ Spiros asked. ‘Why?’ He took a sip of water. ‘All these years we have had to imagine just what his fate was. I have thought of wolves eating him alive or holidaymakers in Kavos eating him alive or a sea accident involving hundreds of jellyfish, but I do not want to wonder any more.’

  ‘Hundreds of jellyfish!’ Kira remarked. ‘And wolves? You watch too much television.’

  ‘Mama, you need to tell us,’ Spiros begged.

  ‘He died,’ Isadora repeated. ‘That is all you should need to know.’

  ‘Andras.’

  It was Dorothea tapping him on the shoulder, a special white wedding-day handkerchief over her hair. Her tone had an urgency like the entire kitchen might be on fire. He got to his feet and followed her quickly.

  ‘Is everything OK?’ he asked as they arrived at the desk. ‘Is it the tortoise?’

  ‘No,’ Dorothea stated. ‘It is the telephone.’ She picked it up and held it out to him. ‘It is the bank.’

  He took hold of the receiver and put it to his ear. ‘Hello.’

  As Mr Giantsiorhs made his introductions, Andras’s eyes went to his taverna and all his family and friends enjoying the wedding festivities. That’s what he wanted from this business. More and more nights like this, as well as making money, making memories.

  He swallowed as the words the banker was saying hit home. ‘I see … yes … I understand.’ He nodded on instinct. ‘Thank you. Of course.’ He replaced the receiver and took a deep breath. Dorothea was still there, looking at him, wringing her hands nervously.

  ‘Is everything OK, Dorothea?’ he asked.

  ‘I heard Spiros asking about your Great Uncle Dimitri.’

  Andras smiled. ‘He is intent on getting to the bottom of the family mystery before the night is out.’

  Dorothea nodded. ‘Dimitri did die,’ she confirmed. ‘But he was one hundred and two and still had his own teeth!’ She folded her arms across her chest. ‘Isadora was always about the drama, even at school!’

  Andras shook his head. ‘Do you think we should tell Spiro?’

  Dorothea looked towards the table where Spiros was sat, hiccupping into someone’s hat. ‘I think if you tell him tonight he will not remember in the morning.’

  Andras nodded and put his arm around the cook. ‘Go and have a drink now, Dorothea, relax. You have worked so hard.’

  ‘You too, Andras,’ she answered. ‘Perhaps a dance with Tess, no?’

  He smiled. He wanted to share every last moment of Tess’s holiday with her, he just needed to work out how to tell her about the bank.

  Seventy-five

  Kalami Beach

  Hand in hand, Tess and Andras walked along the sand and shingle away from the taverna, searching for some quiet space, both knowing that Tess’s hours on the island were dwindling fast.

  ‘It was a lovely wedding,’ Tess said.

  ‘You have said this, many times,’ Andras replied.

  ‘I know.’ She did know. She just knew that the things she really wanted to say weren’t coming easily. ‘I just …’

  ‘We should not pretend,’ Andras said, stopping walking and turning to her.

  She was facing him now, their hands engaged, the moon casting a warm glow over the rippling water of the sea. ‘Pretend?’ she queried.

  ‘That when tomorrow comes things will not change.’ He sighed. ‘You are leaving.’

  ‘I know,’ she said, heaviness weighing down her tone.

  ‘Do not be sad,’ he told her, squeezing her hands. ‘You have to go to be able to one day come back.’

  ‘One day.’ She swallowed. One day sounded like a whole galaxy away.

  ‘I had a call from the bank,’ Andras told her.

  ‘You did?’ She was holding her breath now, so wanting to hear good news.

  ‘They will give me only half of the amount I asked for.’

  It took her a second to react. ‘Half?’

  He nodded. ‘It will be just enough to pay out Spiros, but it won’t be enough to make improvements.’

  ‘Oh, Andras, I’m sorry …’ She swallowed. ‘But that doesn’t have to be the end of it. I mean, there are other banks, or you have time now to start saving and making firm plans for extending and for the event nights.’

  ‘I do not know.’ He shook his head. ‘Maybe this was a sign.’

  ‘A sign?’

  ‘That my dreams were too big.’

  ‘No,’ Tess insisted. ‘Don’t say that. It isn’t true.’

  He cleared his throat. ‘It is OK. It is irritating, but there is nothing I can do about it and … I do not want to think about business tonight.’ He let go of one of her hands to run his fingers through her hair. ‘I want to think about only you.’

  The way he was looking at her was making her insides crumble like the ruined castle on the headland of Kassiopi. Those soulful dark brown eyes were drinking her in and all she wanted to do was wrap herself around him and never let go.

  ‘Listen, Andras, I have some money, unexpected money, money that had a different destination until tonight. I could …’

  Before she had finished the sentence he was already shaking his head. ‘No, Tess, I do not want your money.’

  ‘I know you don’t. Just like I’m not the gold-digger your mother pegged me as when we first met.’

  ‘Tess …’

  ‘No, listen, I wouldn’t be giving the money to you. I would be making an investment. Investing in a lovely Greek taverna by the sea with exquisite views, inside and out, depending on whether there’s a hot restauranteur hanging half-naked from the beams pulling himself up and down like Stephen Amell.’ She took a breath, excitement and lust mixing around in her chest. ‘And, if I made an investment, I would need to come back here, right
here, to Kalami, perhaps staying at the house of the restauranteur to keep a very close eye on my investment and ensure proper conduct was being maintained …’

  ‘Proper conduct,’ Andras said, inching his body a little closer.

  How did he make something so bona fide sound so damn sexy?

  She nodded. ‘Yes, I would need to know that the wine was being cooled to the optimum temperature, that you had managed to secure a supplier who could provide you with Dr Pepper for all those English holidaymakers desperate for it and that, well, standards were being kept up.’

  ‘I have high standards already, Trix,’ he reminded her. ‘Very high standards.’

  ‘I know,’ she breathed, practically losing herself in his eyes as he lowered his face to hers. She broke the spell quickly, putting a hand to his shoulder and edging him back. ‘Wait.’

  She held on to his shoulder and, one by one, she pulled off the flip-flops on her feet, embedding her bare soles onto the sand and taking a deep breath.

  ‘Now,’ she said, lifting her face and holding his gaze. ‘Now you can kiss me.’

  His lips stole the breath from her and, as she clung to him, on the shoreline of the perfect Greek village, she knew there was no way in the world she was ever going to pledge to be single for the summer again.

  Epilogue

  Five weeks later

  McKenzie Falconer Offices

  ‘So, I was thinking, for the TV ad, we could have the Alannah Myles song “Black Velvet” playing in the background, a bit retro, I know, but retro is cool. Then, I thought, a lone female could ride a horse along the surf and stop at an upmarket bar to order a bottle of … Black Velvet Blackberry Crush Pinot.’ Craig produced the bottle from behind his back like he was a magician.

  Was he serious? Tess sat up in her seat at the boardroom table and stopped doodling Greek flags on her notepad. She was distracted, highly distracted. Because it was six weeks. It was exactly six weeks since she had first met Andras and the enormity of that was overwhelming. Six weeks was the rule she had lived her life by for so long. Six weeks had always been like her own personal waiting-for-Armageddon. And this was it. Six weeks with Andras. Timed out.

  ‘Craig, I don’t mean to be rude …’ She did. She absolutely did mean to be rude. ‘But that sounds very much like an advert for sanitary towels.’

  Craig’s face began to redden like lava from Etna.

  ‘Tess!’ Russell exclaimed.

  ‘What? Is sanitary towels a taboo subject? Didn’t we have the account for Female Form at one point?’ If they still had it, she might suggest Craig be the portfolio manager. She shook her head. ‘The whole branding is meant to be relaxation. The horse and the song, it’s too distracting. The advert needs to be cool, sophisticated. We need an instrumental soundtrack, something the audience is instantly going to pick up on as “escape”, “unwind” …’

  There was a knock at the boardroom door and Sally, Tess’s secretary, appeared.

  ‘Sorry to barge in …’ Sally looked at Tess and raised her eyes, rolling them a little and nudging her head to the left.

  ‘What is it, Sally?’ Tess asked. ‘This is a really important meeting. We’re on a very tight deadline.’

  ‘I know. I just …’ She had dropped her voice to a stage whisper everyone could still hear. ‘I’ve got something for you and … it’s a bit strange.’

  ‘Got something?’ Tess asked. ‘What, like a parcel?’

  ‘Smaller,’ Sally said.

  ‘A letter?’

  ‘Smaller still.’

  ‘What is this?’ Russell asked. ‘Charades? We need to get this underway, Tess.’

  Tess knew she had been the one to hold up this whole branding process with the name change.

  ‘Sorry, Russell,’ she said. ‘Sally, just give it to me.’

  ‘Now?’

  ‘Is it rude?’ Tess asked. She almost hoped it had something to do with Tena Lady, just to see the look on Craig’s face.

  ‘I … don’t think so,’ Sally said, stepping into the room.

  Now Tess was curious. She swivelled her chair out from under the table and turned her body towards her secretary, waiting for her to cross the room.

  ‘At first I thought it was a joke but apparently it isn’t,’ Sally stated. ‘Here.’

  Sally’s outstretched hand contained something small and plastic … a maroon red colour. Tess took it. It was a bottle top. A bottle cap from a 500ml bottle of Dr Pepper … but the writing was in Greek. Her breath shortening, she rolled it around her fingers and, as she did so, it flipped over, revealing a number 6 written on the inside. She was up out of her chair, heart pummelling her chest wall.

  ‘Where did this come from?’ she panted. ‘Where did you get this?’

  ‘There’s a man,’ Sally said. ‘He’s in reception.’

  ‘Tess, we really need to …’ Russell started.

  Tess didn’t hear him. She wasn’t thinking about anything else apart from the glorious hope that the person downstairs was the only person she wanted to see more than anyone in the world. She fled from the room, the bottle top clutched in her hand, willing to sprint down all nine flights of steps if she had to.

  In Andras’s hands was the topless bottle of Dr Pepper he had spent a few weeks tracking down. He could have bought one here in the UK, but it needed to be from Greece. It was important, to go with everything else he had in mind. But he was nervous. He checked his watch. Perhaps coming here, to Tess’s work, had been the wrong thing to do. She had an important job, he knew she was busy. Maybe this would look like an invasion rather than a romantic gesture.

  ‘Excuse me.’

  He looked up at the sound of her voice. The voice he had been listening to on the phone and over Skype for the last month sounded even better echoing around this ultra-modern reception area so unlike anything in Kalami.

  ‘Do you have an appointment?’ Tess asked.

  He could tell she was catching her breath, but she slowed her pace as she took the final steps down to him.

  He shook his head. ‘No, Trix, but I do have a Dr Pepper. All the way from Corfu.’

  She ran then, landing in his arms, the drink sloshing out all over the floor as she hugged him close, mouth dropping eager kisses on his lips.

  ‘You are such an idiot,’ she breathed, kissing him again. ‘You brought this all the way from Corfu.’

  ‘It had to go in the hold,’ he answered, kissing her back.

  ‘How? Why? You didn’t tell me you were coming,’ she said, finally letting him go and gazing up at him like he was her whole world.

  ‘I had to come,’ he said with a smile. ‘It is our anniversary. Six weeks since we first met.’

  ‘I can’t believe you remembered,’ Tess said, hands going to her mouth.

  ‘I have come here to make sure we make it to six weeks and one day,’ he spoke. ‘Then six weeks and two days and then maybe … for ever.’

  She gasped as he picked up a box from the burgundy-coloured reception chair and held it out to her. ‘It’s a new laptop,’ he announced. ‘That works very well with the new broadband I have installed at the restaurant and my house. Corfu misses you, Tess, Hector misses you, I miss you. I can stay here for a few days but after that I will have to go back to the island.’ He swallowed, knowing he was going out on a limb here. ‘Come back with me. We can work things out. Some time here in the UK, some time in Corfu …’

  ‘Yes,’ Tess interrupted. ‘The answer is yes.’

  ‘Yes?’ he queried.

  ‘Yes,’ she repeated. ‘Sagapo.’

  He felt his whole body move at the sound of that small word coming from her lips. ‘You know what that means?’

  She nodded vigorously. ‘I googled it.’ She kissed him. ‘I love you.’

  This was what he had hoped for. This was what he had thought about the whole way over on the plane. She was taking steps forward and putting her faith in him, in them.

  ‘Oh my! Eyes are closed! Eyes are clos
ed!’ Sonya exclaimed, appearing from the door to the post room. ‘Is fornication allowed in reception? I’m quite sure it isn’t in the company manual.’

  ‘Hello, Sonya,’ Andras greeted. ‘We must have a meeting. Maybe tomorrow?’

  ‘A meeting?’ Tess queried, holding his hand.

  ‘Sonya and Joey are going to get married at Taverna Georgiou,’ Andras informed her. ‘We need to discuss their plans.’

  ‘What?’ Tess remarked. ‘You didn’t tell me!’

  ‘Well,’ Sonya began, ‘it wasn’t definite until a few days ago. Joey wanted to hire this medieval castle but it cost a small fortune and then his mother got involved – she wanted everyone to dress up like Morris dancers – but then I suggested Corfu and Andras’s restaurant and reminded Joey how perfect Kira and Spiros’s wedding was and … it went from there.’

  ‘Are you going to be able to cater for a whole team of battle re-enactment enthusiasts?’ Tess asked Andras.

  ‘In Greece that is just like a family dinner,’ he responded, kissing the top of her head.

  ‘Come on,’ Tess said, pulling him towards the stairs. ‘Come and meet everyone. I want them all to see the man behind Black Velvet.’

  ‘That sounds like a James Bond film,’ Sonya said with a giggle.

  ‘OK,’ he answered, pulling her to a stop and dropping another kiss on her lips. ‘But after that … I want you all to myself.’

  Her lips curved into a smile and she reached up, palming his cheek, her thumb brushing over his top lip. ‘I promise,’ she whispered. ‘And I can guarantee, there will be absolutely no need for faking anything.’

  Letter from Mandy

  Did you enjoy your holiday in Kalami, Corfu?

  I had so much fun writing Single for the Summer and I really hope you loved every single second of Tess and Andras’s story.

  Who was your favourite character? Were you cheering on Tess? Did you like Sonya? Did you fall for sexy Andras? Did the story make you want to book a holiday to my favourite Greek island?!